Starbreeze: We need to adapt for digital

The studio head at Swedish outfit Starbreeze believes the company must evolve from a triple-A-only mentality to one that embraces digital.

The studio, currently at work on the EA-financed Syndicate project, is now also working on a separate self-funded game for the PlayStation Network.

“For us being a triple-A studio, we have to understand how to utilise the new medium, so to speak, and understand that we have to build a game for the PSN instead of trying to do a big game,” studio head Mikael Nermark told PSM3.

“I think that's the hardest part for us - to adjust when we're doing the small stuff. Because as a studio, we think big,” he added.

"We can't be that big when we're making a PSN game. A big game can be anything between 120 to 200 staff, whereas a small project is one tenth of that, so you have to be able to understand how you handle your resources.

"You can sit all ten people in one room, you don't need a whiteboard, project management tools... you hardly need a producer… okay, you need a producer, but you can let the creatives run it and have a producer overseeing, making sure you hit goals. That's all. You don't lose a lot of time to nonsense,” he explained.

Video games are one of our most interesting and engaging narrative mediums, so why do business plans appear to have such a problem with portrayals of sex and relationships? Alex Calvin speaks to Christine Love, the developer of 'kinky lesbian sex' visual novel Ladykiller in a Bind, to get her take